The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-06-23
A TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE
ESCAPING DEATH ONLY TO DIE OF
FEVER


The Baltimore american has the following
letter from st. Paul De Loando Angola,
Africa: Bishop Taylor ,and Messrs Teter
and Burr arrived at Leopol6viEe, at the
southwestern corner of Stanley Pool, with
out meeting delay or serious accident after
leaving Lukunga. Leopoldville is small
settlement planted by Stanley and named
by him for his patron, the King of Belgium.
Some English Baptist missionaries are
located there, among them being the Rev.
George Grenfel, who has become famous for
his extended explorations in the Congo
basin Mr.. Grenfel has charge of a small
steamer, and, after waiting few DAYS
at Leopoldville, the Bishop was
taken on board and carried up
the Pool twenty miles to Kimpoko. This
was formerly the government station. and
the missionaries We're installed in the build
ing left vacant by the officials. 1t is healthy
locality, commanding a magnificent view
OF the Pool, neighboring hills and distant
mountains. Pending the arrival of his
other missionaries, the Bishop and his com
panions did the same kind of work at Kim
poke that he had done elsewhere. They
repaired their house, tore up the ground
with long steel hoes, planted various kinds
OF vegetables, and established school with
out waiting to get settled. But more than
this, and more than he had done before, was
the construction of a canal, which the
Bishop usually refers to as ''ditch.n Not
far from the house occupied by him at the
Pool is a small river that comes
down from the mountains and empties into
the pool 1t is thirty feet wide where il
passes through the mission farm. The soil
of the farm is not so rich as in other places
where the Bishop had planted stations, and
1t was clear to him as a practical farmer,
that irrigation would more than double its
value So ne and his companions dug a
'ditch,n by which water from the river is
carried all over their banana orchard, plan
tation field, and the rest of the arabic land.
The channel thus made had to be cut eight
inches deep in the shalowest portions, and
upwards OF six feet in the deepest It's total
length is 1880 feet, and the Bishop pro-
poses that this year it be enlarged and
heightened so as to make part of it into a
mill race with fall of twenty feet. 1t
need hardly be said that
NOTHING LIKE BISHOP TAYLOR
has been seen before this in Central Africa.
Day after day the Bishop waited and worked
on, looking for his friends. whom he ex-
pected to arrive within two weeks after him.
A month passed by, when one of the mis-
sionaries was seen tramping YEARLY about
the Kimpoko fields with native guide The
Bishop ran up to him and found that he was
Lyman B. Walker He had come thus far
with Mr.. Grant Cameron, and the others
were somewhere en- route, with the excep-
ton of one who had died on the wav.
They had the utmost difficulty in
traversing the route, followed by the
Bishop, meeting with numerous adven-
lures, delays and accidents. Caravans
had been attacked by robbers; the carriers
had deserted them; some of the people had
fallen sick, and things went discouragingly
generally Cameron had remained by the
dock at kimpoko landing, while Walker set
off through the fields to find the Bishop. The
Bishop, however, cheered up his footsore
comrades, set them to work with his long
hoes, impressed them into ditch digging, and
together they entered upon another season
of waiting. A month and half more
passed, and the time was full of perplexities
and trouble for the Bishop. He could get
no word whatever of his absent colleagues
He could not construct his schooner, be-
cause the materials were still on the way
And, worst of all, he learned from Mr.. Gren-
fel and others familiar with the Kassai and
its tributaries, that the rivers, though
navigable, were altogether too crooked
to make sailing practicable. Nothing
ing would do but steamboat. There We're
only two little steamers on the Upper Congo
one Grenfels boat, the "Peace"-and no way
of using them, for love or money, as the
bishop had learned in Belgium, when he
vainly endeavored to gain from the govern
ment passage on his boat for one man
only. The bishop was sadly troubled, and
most men in his situation would have been
inclined to give up the Kassai scheme. But
not Bishop Taylor If a steamboat were
necessary, why, nothing simpler, he would
get steamboat. Simple enough solution of
the problem. A steamboat such as he need
ed would cost only $50, 900 to build in Eng
land and transport in sections to the Pool.
Twenty thousand dollars and years time,
Well, the bishop
DETERMINED TO GET IT.
But he must wait until he had settled his
people in comparative comfort and safety
before he could leave them, and meantime
several of them seemed to be lost. They
came at last, and while waiting for them
the Bishop had, and accepted, an opportun-
ity to display another side of his varied and
energetic character. A famine set in at the
other end of the Pool No cassava was to
be had. Cassava is, like wheat, the staple
article of food. The government employees
at Leopoldville could not be fed, the nearest
market for supplies being Bona, hundreds
of miles distant overland Journey Accord
ingly, most of them had been discharged,
the force being cut down from sew
eral hundred to less than fifty. The
Eaptists were removing from Leo
poldville, which is exceedingly unhealthy,
TO Kinshassa, town on higher ground a
few miles further east. Mr.. Greufel had
two or three hundred natives in his employ,
building docks and houses, and he found
himself unable to supply them with food.
So he sent up to Kimpoko for "quanges" of
cassava. A "quangan is five-pound loaf OF
cassava bread. The famine did not affect
the Kinpoko region, and cassava could be
procured in great quantities. Moreover, II
was the center to which interior traders
brought their produce for sale, and it was
from them that Mr.. Grenfel expected to
obtain his supplies; but, the Bishop called
one or two of his associates from the field,
and set them up i'll the business
of procuring quanga from the
native makers, to compete with the traders
of the interior. He was able, by the saving
of freightage, to sell it to the Baptists at a
low price, and consequently had substan-
italy a monopoly of the business. The
s.Peace" came up regularly for loads of the
Bishops cassava bread, and the business
6ourished. One by one the other mission,
aries appeared, and the Bishop at last left
them 60 go down TO the coast again, and to
England, for the purpose of getting steam
boat. He Travelled with only native guide
for companion. The 235 miles from
Leopoldville 10 the head OF navigation oil
the Congo he mado
IN TWELVE DAYS.
This is six days better than it was ever
-. and RtGhn